Evolution is now accepted by a majority of Americans
phys.org
phys.org
The sad thing to me is that the low level of "acceptance" of evolution by Americans shows to me fundamental flaws in our education system. When I was in high school and taught evolution, I was basically taught it as "this is how it is", and also with some examples of the evidence for it, but it's not hard for me to see how many people frame evolution as a "some evidence is for it, some evidence is against it" type of question given how it is taught in most high schools. It was only when I got to college that I was really exposed to how evolution is the absolute basis of pretty much all biological understanding, and that if it weren't true, that basically none of our command of biology (e.g. modern medicine) could work.
I'm not necessarily saying high schools have the opportunity to go into that much depth, but it would not be hard, for example, to tie in evolution into lots of different disciplines to see why it's so important, instead of just kind of throwing it out there as one more piece of information students should "believe".
Just playing the devil’s advocate here - but isn't science also what we call the only study that's consistently and routinely wrong?
When science is proven wrong, the theory is updated and we move on.
To be fair, some religions update their info and move on. But the majority staunchly stick to their guns regardless of the evidence.
The one I always hear is "but you just have to have faith!"
I wish this surprised me. If something as straightforward as evolution has this kind of political split, I can’t help but feel that we’re screwed politically.
In a lot of ways I don't care whether somebody accepts evolution or not. People get away with disbelieving because it largely doesn't matter. It would make you a crummy biologist, and not a great doctor, but most people don't actually need to accept evolution in their daily lives. It gets aggravating when such people try to mis-educate people in schools, but that's the worst of it.
Except that creationism seems to have been a kind of test-bed for anti-intellectualism. They learned tactics for getting people to place their ill-informed opinions over expertise any time it suited them. Failing to understand evolution doesn't kill people, but failing to understand epidemiology and virology does.
They don't need to understand it, but they do need to believe medical experts who say things like "get vaccinated" and "wear masks". Instead, people are handed a litany of tools telling them that the experts are wrong and they're right, and it's literally killing people.
The same toolkit is being used on climate change, and lots of other issues. This is far past serious differences of opinion or values. It's cases where they're Just Plain Wrong, and not just a fringe but a large majority supported by the leadership.
I'd really like to get back to arguing about legitimate differences of opinion, but it feels like that hasn't been an option for decades. Instead we're fighting about basic facts, no matter how obvious or overwhelming the evidence.
I always thought it was only rejected by the most extreme ~5% or so of fundamentalist Christians. Seeing that it's half the population is rather astounding.
I think you'd need to adjust for a lot of (too many) other things, as well.
For example, there are new facts that spread quickly and easily because it's painless to change your mind. They don't make you feel retrospective guilt, debunk your religious beliefs, threaten your livelihood, or force you to change your lifestyle. One example would be that BPA is harmful for humans to ingest -- a relatively recent concern that is fairly widely accepted now.
Compare that with the fact that fossil fuels cause climate change, and you don't just get well-funded corporate disinformation efforts. You also have individual workers who just don't want to feel like they've been destroying the planet for 30 years and should find a new industry to work in.
The Atlantic Ocean is a wonderful thing
Ignoring that the mechanism has been demonstrated in laboratory conditions, the argument you suggest stems from the bizarre and witless idea that evolution suggests evolution takes place over a human timescale.
The issue with this presumption is that it is the exact same cognitive deficiency usually attributed to creationists or religious extremists for that matter, that is lack of critical thinking.
It seems to me that whatever idea/ideology that is religiously accepted without any critical think, let it be a story about origins, political beliefs, or even OOP, is as pernicious.
In the spirit of avoiding an echo chamber a book comes to mind: “Where the conflict really lies” by Alvin Plantinga, award winning American philosopher, where he shows some areas in which religious attachment to evolutionism, that is, the application of the theory without critical thinking can actually stagnate scientific progress by closing paths of the exploration even before they are considered.
Let me be clear that I’m not arguing for evolutionism or creationism or anything, just pointing out a cognitive bias we can fall when something is accepted without critical thinking
Incredibly well put.
edit: Or maybe not? I guess my concrete question to you would be what balance of E/C believers do you think would be ideal?
Honestly I don’t about an E/C ideal ratio. My only fear is an ideology becoming so popular to the detriment/exclusion of anything else.
One slightly distressing example is our belief of the inherent value of all humans while our naturalist view points towards natural selection and the survival of the fittest. Say, in a plane accident giving preference to the weakest, i.e. disable, goes against the natural selection scenario that would benefit the species, given that those that are being giving preference are the ones with the least probability of survival, and from a purely naturalistic point of view, it should be the strong and healthy that should exit the plane and survive since that would equate to the greatest net benefit to the survival of the human species.
This is, for example, one of the things that bothers me.
Is this concern attributable to any particular real event?
> Forty percent of U.S. adults ascribe to a strictly creationist view of human origins, believing that God created them in their present form within roughly the past 10,000 years.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/261680/americans-believe-creati...
That's over 100 million people.